What is wrong with the Joburg Mayor?
28 July 2023
What is wrong with the mayor of Johannesburg? What is not wrong with the mayor of Johannesburg?
This city has an R80 billion budget, a population of over 6 million people and it is the commercial and business heart of South Africa, as well as being one of the most significant cities on the African continent.
For some, Johannesburgers are of no consequence. All that is important was securing positions and salaries for members of the ANC, the EFF and the Patriotic Alliance (PA). The rather distasteful negotiations were godfathered by Panyaza Lesufi, who is the ANC premier of Gauteng and the local party chairman. Instead of identifying a fit and proper Executive Mayor, (and surely the ANC has one such among it dozens of councillors) the horse-trading between the ANC, the EFF and the PA, plus one or two other tiny parties, led to the appointment, first of an Al Jamah- ah person who was quite evidently hopeless from the first day. What mattered to Lesufi was jobs for the boys and girls.
When there was an almost unanimous rejection of that mayor, Lesufi and the EFF got busy again a month or two later. To no little consternation, Lesufi and co came up with another member of Al Jama- ah (there are only 3 of them in the 270-member Council). Again, all the other jobs were dished out to the boys and girls, generally irrespective of whether they were suitable to conduct oversight over billion Rand budgets.
The latest Ah Jama-ah puppet is Kabelo Gwamanda. When he was elected, Google recorded in a puff piece that he was a well-known human rights attorney. Eventually, that disappeared and it was recorded that he has the equivalent of a Grade 10 education and did not finish school. Far worse, it soon became public knowledge that he was accused of running a fraudulent and illegal burial insurance scheme that stole money from the participants, mainly the poor. A first citizen who makes us all proud.
When Johannesburg experienced the gas explosion in the centre of the city last Wednesday, attracting world-wide publicity, guess who pushed himself into speaking to almost every TV programme, radio station and media outlet on behalf of Johannesburg? Lesufi. He is what is known as an ambulance chaser and every microphone provides and excuse to opine. He is known for his ambition that extends far further than Gauteng.
Lesufi, who has nothing to do with Johannesburg and should not speak on behalf of the City, was right in thinking that Mayor Gwamanda was incapable of addressing the media of South Africa and the World. Some other member of the Mayoral Committee should have been briefed – perhaps given a script to follow. That Lesufi is causing waves in the ANC/ EFF/PA coalition became clear when the EFF MMC in charge of Public Safety (hitherto unknown and rather anonymous) launched a vitriolic attack on Lesufi and deftly put him in his place. It was screamingly clear that Lesufi holds Gwamanda in contempt, when he refused to permit the Mayor of Johannesburg to visit some of the explosion victims in hospital. Lesufi wanted to reserve that photo opportunity for himself. Surely, we can do better than this?
What is worrying, is that with the Keystone Cops in charge, citizens of Johannesburg, at the time of writing, 5 days after the explosion, are still not properly informed about the causes of the explosion that led to such damage to reputation, property and life.
Douglas Gibson is a former opposition chief whip and a former ambassador to Thailand. His website is douglasgibsonsouthafrica.com
This article first appeared in The Star newspaper.
